“Hey Trailer Trash, come over here, I want to talk to you.”
Randy turned to see who was talking to him, and it was Dylan Brown, one of the seniors at Haverson Prep. Randy immediately knew he was in trouble. Dylan was a linebacker on the school football team, 6’2”, and 200 pounds of testosterone and anger. On his own, he was an immature jerk at the best of times, but with his posse of football disciples who looked up to him like some sort of god, he was insufferable. It was Dylan who had given Randy the nickname ‘Hobo’ in the first place, when he found out he lived in a trailer park. Never mind the fact that it was a beautiful park and a brand-new home that was nicer than most of the ‘real’ houses in town. That didn’t matter. What mattered was that Randy didn’t come from real money, had no roots in the community, was new to the school, and was a little funny looking. Randy coming to the school was like a winning lottery ticket for a bully like Dylan.
Randy glanced around, hoping to see a teacher, or someone he could pretend to talk to while he waited for something shiny to catch Dylan’s attention. Normally the odds were good. All it took was a cute girl or one of his flock of followers to mention how good he was at crushing people, for him to lose his focus on his prey.
Today is my lucky day , Randy thought to himself as he realized the bull was fully focused on him.
“Hurry up Trailer Trash, I ain’t got all day.” Dylan said, motioning Randy towards him.
Taking a deep breath, Randy turned and walked towards him.
Randy gave him his best smile. “Hey, Dylan. What can I do for you?” While he was new at Haverson Prep, he was not new to dealing with bullies. In fact, that was how he ended up at a fancy prep school in the first place. After a series of incidents at his last school, his mom had forced him to transfer into Haverson. He’d tried to convince her that homeschooling was a perfectly acceptable option in this day and age, but she insisted that going to school and interacting with other kids was a normal part of growing up. Randy shouldn’t miss out on that experience because of a few bad apples at his old school.
Nobody told Randy’s mom that rich kids weren’t different when it came to bullies. In fact, they were the worst. He’d seen how some of the aspiring jocks’ parents treated their kids, like their kids were some mad science experiments and the only outcome acceptable was Harvard, pro sports, or some combination of the two. With the pressure and abusive nature of their family lives, it was no wonder kids like Dylan were assholes. It was like taking the worst bullies from his old school and pumping them up with anabolic steroids and mental abuse. Not to mention, the copious amount of money their uber rich parents donated to the school, making their kids immune to the threat of real discipline from the school. No, the bullies of Haverson Prep were like gods in their little worlds and Randy was the ant that they were going to test out their magnifying glass on.
“Trailer Trash, I need you to do me a favor,” Dylan said.
Randy tried to smile, holding to his mantra of ‘show no fear’. “What do you need?”
“We’re having a fox hunt this afternoon. Coach Jenkins wants us to mix up our training so he organized it, but Chad Bailey twisted his ankle yesterday and can’t be our fox.”
Chad Bailey was the school’s star track athlete. He was quick as a cheetah and could run for hours. Randy was in Chad’s PE class and suddenly knew why Dylan was talking to him. Track wasn’t a big sport in Haverson, and Chad was the only long-distance runner. In PE class Randy was the second-best runner, that wasn’t already on the football team. Randy gulped. “What does the fox do?”
“It is simple. We run through the Semwick Forest. You get a minute head start and then the team chases you down. Supposedly, it will help us with pacing, endurance, and strategy, but I think it is stupid. However, if we don’t have a foxhunt, coach is going to make us do bag sprints. I hate bag sprints. So, you are going to be our fox this afternoon.”
“I’m not sure I’m available this afternoon…”
“Look Trailer. If you do this for me, I’ll back off, maybe pretend you don’t exist for a few months. Heck, if you don’t, maybe I’ll start calling you Elf Boy like the kids at your last school.”
Randy winced at the Elf Boy reference. He’d suffered a lot of ridicule at his last school. Someone had filmed him changing in the locker room after showering and had edited the video to make his already somewhat pronounced ears look even pointier. The worst part wasn’t what they’d done to his ears, it was that they’d edited another part of his anatomy to make it look smaller. And after a cold shower, the video of the Naked Elf made Randy the laughingstock of the school. Randy had no desire to have that nickname brought back, but the prospect of Dylan pretending he didn’t exist was enough to convince Randy to accept the offer. Besides, if he didn’t accept, Randy was pretty sure a beating was in his future. At least as the fox, he had a chance of escaping unharmed. “I suppose I could rearrange my schedule, if you are serious about forgetting I exist.”
Dylan smiled. “Scout’s honor.” He lifted his fingers in something that was supposed to represent the scout’s symbol but looked closer to a Vulcan salute.
“I guess I could be the fox this one time.”
“Good choice, Trailer,” Dylan said. “I’ll see you at the football field after school.”
Randy nodded and walked away, wondering what kind of sick torture he’d just signed himself up for. He was going to willingly let a horde of muscle-bound freaks chase him through a forest where there would be no teachers or other students to witness his murder? Great idea.
After the last few classes of the day, which Randy daydreamed his way through, trying not to imagine all the ways he could be crushed and trying to come up with a plan of how to survive the fox hunt, he ended up at the football field wearing his PE clothing, not wanting to take any chances that his normal clothes would slow him down.
Coach Jenkins addressed the football team. “OK, thanks to Randy here,” he pointed to Randy and all the jocks studied him like a piece of meat to be devoured, “we have our fox. Randy will get a full minute’s head start to start making his way to the college campus, which is on the other side of the forest. It is five miles between here and the college so pace yourself accordingly.”
Randy knew that it was less than five miles to the college and the finish line. The trail that went through the forest was just over five miles in length, but it wound through the forest like a snake. If he took the right shortcuts, it would be closer to three miles, but once you were off the beaten path the woods were dense and running fast was far more difficult. He’d have to choose his path wisely. Randy guessed some of the bigger football players, like the linemen, would stick to the path, and he really wasn’t worried about them catching him. They were built for power, not endurance or speed. It was the guys like Dylan who were just athletic monsters with power, speed and endurance that scared the poop out of Randy. He was glad it was called a fox run as it reminded him of the need to be cunning. If he just ran like a scared rabbit, he would get caught for sure.
“OK, everyone ready?” Coach Jenkins said. “Randy, you start in 3-2-1, Go!”
Randy started with a sprint as the coach started counting down his one-minute head start. The sooner he was in the woods, the sooner he would be fully out of sight of the horde and he could disappear.
Randy ran as fast as he could for thirty seconds, and then slowed to a more manageable run. He knew he wasn’t the best sprinter in the school, not by a long shot, but he could run long distances fairly well. Maybe not as good as Chad Bailey, but for a kid with minimal athletic ability Randy had decent endurance. He followed the path until he came to the first short-cut. It was one that most kids knew, so he wouldn’t be gaining any time as everyone would take it, but he wouldn’t be losing any either.
Wincing as he was occasionally smacked by pine needles, Randy tried to duck branches while running, zigging and zagging his way through the forest. He could hear a howl behind him as the horde started the chase. Had a minute already passed? Damn, he needed to keep moving.
As the shortcut reunited with the main path, Randy decided to stick to the path for a while. There were a couple places that were considered shortcuts by the kids at the school, but they included a couple steep inclines. They were only shortcuts if you were walking.
When Randy finally left the path, it wasn’t a shortcut at all. It was a slightly longer route, but it went through a meadow in the forest with a ravine at the end. He could maintain a good speed and create some separation from the horde. As long as they didn’t know about the meadow and took the main path, he would be fine till nearly the end of the trail. He could deal with that when he got there, for now his main strategy was to survive, if possible.
Randy jogged through the meadow, occasionally looking back to see if he’d been spotted. The one downside to this path was if anyone else came through the meadow, they would easily spot him, even at a distance. He was halfway through the meadow when he looked back and saw the Mangeene twins behind him.
“Damn it,” Randy swore at his bad luck. Of all the people that could take a gamble on this route, the twins were the worst of the bunch. They were both far better runners than he was, and they were as mean as rattlesnakes. Both were slight of build and made up for their lack of size with extra aggression, both on and off the football field. If Dylan was the head bully at Haverson Prep, these two were his evil sidekicks. While Randy thought Dylan was an asshole because his father was an overbearing prick who put an enormous amount of pressure on his son’s shoulders, he felt the Mangeene twins were the kind of kids who killed little animals for the fun of it. Randy was sure the only thing keeping them out of jail was their parents’ lawyers.
Randy ran harder.
Behind him, Randy could hear laughing. It was like they smelled his fear and were feeding off it. He tried to keep his focus and stick to the plan. He was ahead by a couple hundred feet and had a solid chance of getting to the college first. All he had to do was keep running at his current pace. They were gaining on him, but only a little at a time.
When he got to the end of the meadow, Randy again looked back. He was still ahead and had less than a mile to go. He might make it out of this situation after all! He felt a second wave of energy hit him as he imagined a future where he didn’t end up getting buried in the woods by the Mangeene twins.
Randy was so excited by the idea that he forgot where he was. Shit! I’ve gone from running like a fox to being the stupid rabbit, Randy thought as he realized his predicament. There was a large ravine at the end of the meadow. The spot where he’d planned to cross was now off to his left. He’d run without being aware of his location. If he turned towards it now, he’d be running back towards the Mangeene twins. As he approached the ravine, Randy debated trying to jump it, but at the last second, he veered right. He just didn’t think he had the acrobatic talents to make that leap. Instead, he followed the edge of the ravine, watching for a spot to cross.
Behind him the twins were able to alter their path and were gaining rapidly as Randy was no longer running straight away from them. All the ground he’d gained by exerting extra energy was evaporating with every step he took along the ravine.
Finally, he found a spot in the ravine that had a gentle slope, He slowed down enough that he could get down it. Just as he was entering the ravine, one of the twins hit him with a flying tackle that sent them both crashing down into the ravine bottom. He tried to brace himself for impact, but his arms were pinned to his side by whichever twin was tackling him. Coach Jenkins would’ve been proud if he saw how good of a tackle it was.
The last thing Randy saw was a rock the size of Texas colliding with his face.
He saw stars and then everything faded to darkness. The last thing he heard was one of the twins laughing. “Shit bro, I think you killed him. We better get back on the path and pretend we never saw him.”